The drinking game goes like this: every time you mention COVID-19, take a sip. It’s six minutes into my conversation with Meg Cabot when she makes the rules. We’re sharing margaritas over Zoom to discuss topics like fictional feuding authors, rom-coms and the magnificent Julie Andrews. But, as it always seems to go these days, asking an innocuous question like “How long have you lived in Florida?” soon gives way to an aside about case counts and shutdowns—and we can’t have that, Cabot suggests, because we are here to have fun. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] I remember the 12-year-old version of myself, practicing my curtsy in case it ever turned out that I, too, was a long-lost royal like Mia Thermopolis, née Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo, Princess of Genovia.